Coil handling device



y 1967 c. E. YOUNGBLOOD 3,317,060

COIL HANDLING DEVICE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 2, 1965 INVENTOR Char/es youn b/ood y 2, 1967 c. E. YOUNGBLOOD 3,317,060

COIL HANDLING DEVICE Filed June 2, 1965 I 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 a :2; :3 M 3 -z: 5/

M in; l3: 20

INVENTOR F g. 3

Char/65 f. )unyb/ooa y 2, 1967 c. E. YOUNGBLOOD 3,317,060

COIL HANDLING DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 15 Filed June 2, 1965 INVENTOR Char/65 f. Kwnyb/aoa United States Patent O 3,317,060 COIL HANDLING DEVICE Charles E. Youngbloorl, .lohnstown, Pa., assignor to Bethlehem Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed June 2, 1965, Ser. No. 460,670 3 Claims. (Cl. 214-1) This invention relates in general to the manipulation of coils and more particularly to tilting coils of rod and strip from a coil receiving position to a coil delivering position.

In steel mill operations where coils of rod and/ or strip are handled it is frequently necessary to tilt the coils for further processing of the coiled material. Coils in storage or as discharged from an annealing furnace are frequently horizontally disposed, i.e., with the central aperture of the coil extending vertically. It is necessary to tilt the coil on edge so that the lifting means, e.g., a C- hook, or a single ram mounted on a fork lift truck, can engage the coil.

Means for tilting coils, commonly referred to as downtilters or coil tilters, are well known. care must be exercised in loading the coil on the tilter and tilting it, otherwise damage occurs to the convolutions of the coiled material and to the tilter structure. The use of flexible belt means for the handling of coil is known. However, the flexible nature of the belt has made its application to a tilting operation impossible. The Wide range in size of coils handled requires an apparatus that is easily and quickly adjustable.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an improved apparatus for tilting coils of material from a coil receiving position to a coil delivering position without damaging the material or the structure.

A further object of the invention is to provide an adjustable apparatus to accommodate a wide range of coil sizes.

A still further object of this invention is to provide means for adapting flexible material to a tilting apparatus.

The present invention comp-rises generally a tilting carriage adapted to receive coils of rod or strip material with means for cradling the coils during the tilting operation to prevent the coils from falling and consequently damaging the coiled material and the carriage structure. The cradling means is flexible in order to conform to the shape of the coil being tilted and is adjustable to varying sizes of coils. The flexible cradle of the instant invention is provided with suspension means for maintaining said cradle readily adaptable to receive coils.

Although reference is made to the handling of coiled mate-rial, it should be understood that the invention is equally adaptable to handling any substantially cylindrical shape.

Referring to the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is atop plan 'view of the apparatus;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus in a horizontally disposed position;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus in the tilted position;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional View of the apparatus, taken on line 4-4 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged view of a flexible belt suspension means, taken on line 55 of FIGURE 4; and

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view of the movable crosshead taken on line 6-6 of FIGURE 4.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, and first to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the coil handling apparatus of the present invention is seen to comprise a carriage generally designated by the reference numeral 10. Trays 11 with coil 13 resting thereon is seen in position for tilting on carriage 10. A similar coil 13 is resting on tray 12 which is positioned on conveyor 14.

However, great i 3,317,060 Patented May 2, 1967 The carriage 10, comprising apparatus adapted to receive coils of varying sizes is shown with two compartments 15 and 16. The front wall 17 and side walls 18 are preferably constructed of tubular members. The rear wall 19 and bottom wall 20 of the tilting carriage 10 may be constructed of structural members. The spaced front 17 and rear 19 walls are connected to each other by bottom wall 20. The walls are secured to one another, as by welding, to form a rigid enclosure for the coils being tilted. Front wall 17 is somewhat lower than rear wall 19 to permit removal of the titled coils, as by lifting means suspended from an overhead crane or a single ram mounted on a fork lift truck. The members 21 of rear wall 19 serve as runners for the wheels 22 of the coil supporting trays. The trays are pushed onto the carriage by the following tray 12 as conveyor 14 (conveyor mechanism not shown) moves it toward the tilting carriage 10. The leading edge of tray 11 contacts stop plate 23 which limits the forward movement of said tray. Stop plate 23 is mounted on the inside face of the bottom wall 20 adjacent the intersection of rear Wall 19 and said bottom wall. Keeper plates 24 and 25 and keeper angles 26 are mounted on the carriage spaced away from the inside face of said rear wall 19 a distance suflicient to allow passage of the coil tray edges as it is rolled onto the carriage. The keeper plates maintain the position of the tray as the tilting operation proceeds and when the coil is removed.

A cradle is formed in each of the compartments 15 and 16 by a flexible belt 27, e.g. a woven metal fabric, which is hingedly fixed to post 28 on one end and hingedly fixed to a movable plate crosshead 29 at the other end. Post 2-8 is slidably mounted on tubular guide members 30 by means of sleeves 31 which are welded to the top and bottom of said post 28. Adjustment of the fixed end of the belt is accomplished by inserting pins 32 through holes 33 in sleeves 3-1 and a matching hole, one of several spaced apart holes 34, in guide members 30.

The movable mounting of the other end of said flexible belt 27 is shown clearly in FIG. 4 to which particular reference is now made. The movable plate crosshead 29 comprises a slide plate 35, mounting plate 36 for one end of said flexible belt, and mounting block 37 for cylinder rod 47, shown in FIG. 6. The U-shape slide plate 35 has short shallow legs with the opening of the U facing Wall 20'. The short legs 38 of the shallow U form the sliding portions of the plate. Brass liners 39 are mounted on either side of said legs 38 to provide sliding engagement with the inner surfaces of slotted guide rails 40 and 41. The outside of the surfaces of the short legs 38 and the outside bottom of the U are straight and the jointure of said legs and said bottom form substantially square corners. The flexible belt mounting plate 36, somewhat shorter than the slide plate 35, is fixed at right angles to and approximately centered on slide plate 35. As is clearly shown in FIG. 6, the mounting plate 36 is bent so that wing portions 42 are formed extending toward wall 20. Hinge mountings 43, which may be short sections of pipe, are welded to the longitudinal edge of said wing portions42. The hinge mountings 43 engage mating pipes 44 fixed to the flexible belt 27 to be hingedly joined by hinge pin 45. The other end of said flexible belt 27 is fixed to post 28 in like manner.

Mounting block 37, drilled and tapped to receive the threaded end portion 46 of cylinder rod 47, is fixed to the crosshead 29 intermediate the ends thereof. The base of the hydraulic cylinder 48 is removably mounted on bracket 49 which is fixed to members 50 and 51 of rear wall 19 and bottom wall 20 respectively, as shown in FIG. 4. The slotted guide rails 40 and 41 are of sutficient length to accommodate the length of stroke of hydraulic cylinder rod 47. The bottom guide rail 41 is substantially U-shaped and the top guide rail 40 is an ineverted U shape, said guide rails fixed to structural members 52 and 50 respectively by bolts 53. It is thus seen that by activating hydraulic cylinder 4-8 cylinder rod 47 extends through the length of stroke to adjust flexible belt 27 in firm engagement with the coil.

The tilting apparatus as seen in FIGS. 2 and 3 is tilted through approximately 90 by any suitable means, as for example, in the pictured embodiment, a double acting hydraulic cylinder 54. The said apparatus is rotated about shaft 55 which is journaled in bearings 56 supported from the floor on mountings 57. When the apparatus is in the tilted position shown in FIG. 3 the front wall 17 and rear wall 19 are vertical forming an open topped enclosure for containing the tilted coils.

The flexible belt 27 is suspended at a point intermediate its ends to maintain said belt in an upright position while the carriage is being loaded. The suspension device 58 shown in detail in FIG. comprises a clamp 59 fixed, e.g. by welding, to the flexible belt 27 at the lower end of said clamp and removably attached to a spring 60 by means of spring mounting bolt 61 at the upper end. The upper end of spring 60 is removably attached by spring mounting bolt 65 to a roller guide 62. Said roller guide comprises two side plates 63 spaced apart by and fixed to bifurcated member 64 to which spring mounting bolt 65 is removably attached. Roller guide 62 is provided with a plurality of rollers 66 mounted on shafts 67 and spaced away from side plates 63 by spacers 68. The suspension device 58 is thus enabled to roll in and out, as required, on support member 69 as the flexible belt 27 is moved by means of hydraulic cylinder 48. The roller guide support member 69 may be a section of pipe, as seen in FIG. 5, or any other shape suitable for forming a contact surface for the rollers 66 of roller guide 62. Said support member 69 is mounted above the flexible belt 27 intermediate its ends, fixed to the longitudinal structural member 70 of bottom wall 20 and to the longitudinal tubular member 71 of front wall 17 by means of stub 73, substantially parallel to the plane of rear wall 19.

In operation:

The tilting carriage in the coil receiving position, with front and rear walls substantially horizontal receives tray 11 with rod bundle 13 resting on said tray. Tray 11 is propelled onto the tilting carriage by the following tray 12 which is engaged by conveyor 14. The wheels 22 of tray 11 are guided on runners 21 which members also form the rear wall 19 of the carriage 10'. Hydraulic cylinder 48 is activated to cause crosshead 29 to move forward toward the coil. The flexible belt 27, being hingedly fixed at one end to post 28 and hingedly fixed at the other end to the movable crosshead 29 is moved into firm peripheral engagement with the convolutions of the coil 13. Sleeves 31 are adjusted on post 28 to accommodate the coil size when necessary. The double acting hydraulic cylinder 54, positioned at the center of carriage 10, is activated, causing the tiltable carriage 10 to rotate about shaft 55 allowing carriage support members 72 to rest on the floor. The carriage is now in the coil delivering position with the front wall 17 and rear wall 19 substantially vertical. The flexible belt 27 firmly cradles the coil 13 during the rotation of approximately 90 preventing the coil from sliding from the tray to the bottom of the carriage thus causing damage to the coil convolutions as well as to the structure. Lifting means, e.g. a single ram mounted on the front of a fork lift truck, can easily engage the tilted coil and lift it from the carriage to move said coil to a new station for further processing of the coiled material. The now empty tray 11 is lifted out by conventional lifting equipment and the reversal of the hydraulic cylinder returns the empty carriage to the coil receiving position.

The apparatus thus described provides means for easily and safely tilting coils of rod or strip so that the coil is rotated through approximately from a horizontally disposed position as in FIG. 2 to a vertically disposed position as in FIG. 3.

Although the foregoing description and drawings illustrate a two compartment tilter for handling two coils at one time, it will be obvious that the principles of the invention here disclosed could be applied to a single compartment tilter as well. It should also be understood that the disclosed apparatus is equally adaptable to the described operation in reverse, i.e. rotating a coil from a vertically disposed position to a horizontally disposed position.

I claim:

1. In combination with a coil tilting device of the type wherein a coil carriage comprising front and rear Walls is provided with means for tilting the carriage from a coil receiving position to a coil delivering position, the improvement which comprises:

(a) a flexible belt located between and substantially longitudinally coextensive with said walls, for engaging a coil inserted therebetween,

(b) means attached to one end of said walls for securing one end of said belt,

(c) means securing the other end of said belt, said means adapted to move said belt toward said coil, and

(d) means secured to said belt intermediate its ends for suspending said belt when said carriage is in a coil receiving position, said means being movable on a supporting structure toward and away from said coil.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein:

the means recited in subparagraph ((1) includes a clamp fixed to said flexible belt, a spring removably attached to said clamp at one end and removably secured to a roller guide at the other end, said roller guide movably mounted on a support member fixed to said carriage.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein:

the means recited in subparagraph (b) is adapted to be adjustably fixed in any one of several spaced apart locations.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,564,436 8/1951 Jackes et al. 214- X 3,055,512 9/1962 Quayle 2141 FOREIGN PATENTS 827,007 1/ 1960 Great Britain.

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner, 

1. IN COMBINATION WITH A COIL TILTING DEVICE OF THE TYPE WHEREIN A COIL CARRIAGE COMPRISING FRONT AND REAR WALLS IS PROVIDED WITH MEANS FOR TILTING THE CARRIAGE FROM A COIL RECEIVING POSITION TO A COIL DELIVERING POSITION, THE IMPROVEMENT WHICH COMPRISES: (A) A FLEXIBLE BELT LOCATED BETWEEN AND SUBSTANTIALLY LONGITUDINALLY COEXTENSIVE WITH SAID WALLS, FOR ENGAGING A COIL INSERTED THEREBETWEEN, (B) MEANS ATTACHED TO ONE END OF SAID WALLS FOR SECURING ONE END OF SAID BELT, (C) MEANS SECURING THE OTHER END OF SAID BELT, SAID MEANS ADAPTED TO MOVE SAID BELT TOWARD SAID COIL, AND (D) MEANS SECURED TO SAID BELT INTERMEDIATE ITS ENDS FOR SUSPENDING SAID BELT WHEN SAID CARRIAGE IS IN A COIL RECEIVING POSITION, SAID MEANS BEING MOVABLE ON A SUPPORTING STRUCTURE TOWARD AND AWAY FROM SAID COIL. 